Opinion: Making Sense of the ObamaCare Ruling

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... the ... thus the court has ... held ... the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare in a five for rolling penned ... by chief Justice John Roberts ... a chilly day to discuss is editorial page editor Paul to go ... and Pulitzer Prize winner Joe rego won that prize last year for his Obamacare editorials ... Joanne called gentlemen welcome ... I he's so when you dig into the details later today on the five o'clock show when we've had a chance to read through this massive ruling ... this around with you call ... get your reaction this is a very very surprising result ... stunning I think is the result that I'd well I did know anybody who predicted that were some who said it would be six three of holding them and it isn't fun for overturning ... this uphold the mandate ... with logic nobody expected that is and to justice but nobody expected Tony Kennedy was supposed to be the swing vote he now looks like and we've only read the syllabus ... of this not the whole opinion he sided with the ... discount ... for dissenters to overturn not just the purchase mandate but the entire law ... so the only way and in in in it and also Justice Roberts joined them ... in the logic that said the conduct of the two of the mandate violates the Commerce clause so the plaintiffs the states one the argument ... I'm a cost on constitutionality ... of the purchase mandate under the Commerce clause and Sistani ... data loss ... because Roberts said well you can ... justify ... the purchase mandate under the taxi ... yet ... I'm so ... that is this is really really gonna this is the stunning part of the decision to sell this is the one man show yet what the president himself said that this was not a Texan shell ... of course come to this conclusion what it was still need to read the opinion of one of the sherbet was one of the things here is that that that the tax there's a law called the Anti injunction Act which says you can challenge the constitutionality ... of attacks of the fourth actually been collecting ... US of a ruling that it's not a tax for the purpose of the Anti injunction Act ... and chief Justice Roberts rules that its attacks ... of for the for the purchase mandate and so it's it's really a remarkable ... of of split the ... Portage important thing to remember that the the law itself doesn't say tax brackets as penalty ... okay and that's the invasion of what gets them around in the Opinion The Anti injunction Act ... what ... the Democrats didn't call it a tax because they didn't like the politics of calling it ... probably when ... I call this the most certainly true so so but call it what does this mean going for it does this mean that Congress can basically do whatever it wants is so long as it doesn't call it ... a certain word it's it's fine to Supreme Court to mind when their favored does is increase the power of Congress will be opinions as you would do that you cannot compel people to come to his model on Congress to compel people to commit commerce or you can't beat this and so you cannot be forced to choose to do something ok to commit cups ... however it sounds to me if you if you who's reading the the the summary the iPad ... that as long as they call it attacks the penalty for not pursuing something so you go and you don't buy that to ... the green card know you're desperate to buy a baby at the end but they they say well you know what ... ok ... but he will find you a thousand dollars or ten two thousand dollars for not going to cut them out would seem under this logic to be constitutional ... we've got a little under a minute left in a steady state universe have more coverage for a coming of the China very briefly ... were you surprised it was the chief justice here ... that was that the swing vote on this result we see this come to know and I don't think anybody expected about it if he wanted as as we said that the conservative bloc would have overturned the entire law ... is it that ... time met his jurisprudence I think you would've gone over and and you were to five ... but the four decision ... on on that front I think the ... that there is a silver lining here which were the justices said there is an outer limit ... to the Commerce clause of that they created ... a new defacto power under the taxing power ... welcome back to our special edition of opinion Journal Live on the Supreme Court upholding ... the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare ... um well I just wanted to follow briefly with helium editorial page editor Paul GBO ... it was surprising to generate up ... and joined the intifada with the one John Roberts and Geelong last Sunday was the surprise he said yes ... your reaction oh ... well I feel very surprise to some question I'm surprised that one of the interesting questions that will be announced ... by the analyst is whether the pressure ... that was put on Justice Roberts in particular by an awful lot of liberal commentators ... including the media they really hit him very hard in between your oral arguments ... and the decision today basically saying that he would ... be an activist justice ... Supreme Court justice if he ... will join the people wanted overturn the act ... that he would have violated the pledge he made to the Senate the video referee on now up on legislation and ... so they put enormous amount of pressure on the interesting question will be and I think it's a fair question to ask is ... did that influence ... him on whether or not to go to the other side ... well it certainly didn't have a massive impact on our economy ... and Sunday Joe you've written about in extensive detail ... just wanna say I chose editorials are up on WS J dot com for its lush opinion if you want to have a lot ... of job he started out ... looking at the individual mandate in Massachusetts ... what you've learned there about what this means for health care prices for consumer choice what can you tell us when to expect rival Telefónica we've we averted a disaster just the mandate gone you would've seen a lot of gaming on as the asthe interacted with some these other regulations for them though that the individual mandate is meant to mitigate other problems that are the cause ... the regulatory problems ... that are that are often until I think the question now is ... is the mandate effective enough to actually ... get people into the market and you get these crimes and we didn't see that Massachusetts we saw people ... are coming in for a major knee surgery or whatever and then ... dropping coverage in the penalty ... of of going forward you're also seeing that now in a program created ... by the Affordable Care Act for for people with preexisting conditions were ... now coming coming in for some minor surgery or or whatever and then and then dropping cover starts there still to be major distortions but but ... this may mitigate and someone would know what the ... stock size the tactical buy insurance with this ... they competed for space on come of it it's never more than ... five hundred dollars ... be enough to get young people to ... buy a can of tomato ... well ... they're they're a lot of part of our economy are impacted your small business is out ... of health care consumers ... I in Medicare ... a recent years ... and in Medicare Medicaid piece of this ... Medicare's on implicated in this ... miniseries giving it a lot what is that what what how is this decision the impact that program ... well we have to look at the of the Medicaid decision to Beetel looks like it ... the the the the the Los Angeles' huge huge expansion of Medicaid which is imposed on the states that looks as if the court said ok you can impose new coverage on the states ... which you can do is punish the States by withholding ... the money you already approved by those states if they don't decide to him ... okay so it looks like there's an inch there will be an opportunity for states that don't want to participate in the expansion of Medicaid ... the top Dow and not lose their current fund is I was memo that was to stick ... the Fed remember that we use to the States is the better play ball were asked why ... Fi major current Medicaid ... recipients ... and is a fifty fifty program in theory fifty five percent funded by the Fed's fifty percent of the states ... so ... the irony of this is that the state's challenge the law because they din wanna pay Medicaid ... but they use them and they in no way to to to to make them what they thought was the more powerful constitutional argument ... with a loss ... I'm but now they win a partial ... victory on Medicaid surge of ... Justice to mine below ... that I actually got thirty seconds left in the series in history as ... the economic impacts on rising for us look but that doesn't wanna wanna make about Medicaid which is if Obama wins election and this opt out provision if that's what it is continues to insist I think you can easily see the ... nationalization of Medicaid everything going for has picked up ... by the federal government so the States ... I have no justification for dropping dropping out and that's a real danger so higher taxes ... I was consumer choice ... to nationalize ... the federal government health care Medicaid will either break the states that don't break them in a breakout ... the ... I now call in on the politics ... of today's very very surprising Supreme Court decision five four to upload the individual mandate and ObamaCare ... on the first EU call ... on the politics here ... was this mean that for the present is in revitalizing the boosted his campaign here to restore the member look it's a big victory there's no question because if the Supreme Court has ... overturned the last from four justices wanted to do that would have been ... to cut the heart and soul of the use of it as ... a signal achievement the one he said was this uncle who is lazy and he believes is central to his legacy because he believes his legacy involves expanding the size of the government's safety net ... and the government expansion over the middle class ... so this is a big victory could have made means that now fundamentally ... if people want overturn Obamacare ... the half to win the election ... I'm with Mitt Romney has to win the election otherwise it will go into force in twenty thirteen and twenty four ... what's turned into me Ronnie show you bring a lot about his Kincaid he did in Massachusetts ... you how you ... judge ... by his ... proposals for ... Medicaid Medicare reform I'm sorry ... there are a part ... in America is he is present in a good alternative ... to Obamacare which he really has to do now that we know that that was moving and Credit mare you're forgetting that he actually putting it the prototype up ... for the Affordable Care Act and Massachusetts governor ... but ... in the last March to put out of a pretty good health minded stench of under ... performing entitlements of more consumer choice and competition now markets he is really emphasize that he's he's playing it he's played a lot say not taking a lot of ... political risks ... and we'd be on the same yet out of the campaign ... as as far as we know ... um um on how least reacting to this but I think it raises the stakes he needs to make ... health care part of the reason ... to elect him in the first place ... right yes this is a kisses are the crucial point to marry because it means that he has to ... start to make health care ... the centerpiece of his campaign he's got the economy does to the point number one but this has to be really the sidecar this has to be the second argument he makes a link to it because it's obviously has an effect on the economy as we said I think it's dampening job creation there's no question to clean small businesses ... but if Romney is not he should take this has incentive ... to make this a central argument because it still unpopular ... it goes on to become sadly popular because the court said ok it's constitutional as a tax ... okay ... the SEC one s and although I will bring that to relieve ... the bill still to be on top of that he's gonna make the argument the one he's gonna make the army could help it ... because Erste if AVI makes an argument because they're still the majority of voters out there perfectly independent voters who don't like this tale of how one of the swing states I was is play in Florida that is displayed in places where it was running past it was nice to really wind book I think that the ... that the majority American public and report dislikes it's ... the independence would be on the least a plurality I've looked at the local the recent polls but I think a majority in many cases of ... this likes ... to swing states or other states ... would already cover this likes to ... make the argument Mr Romney ... take it to the voters EP doesn't ... he's gonna be put on his back for good he's missing a big opportunity ... I might add that we had a great editorial titled GOP care ... very recently if you wanna look and I began to WSJ's dot com